Trees On Mars: Our Obsession with the Future

“Hal Niedzviecki’s urgent, eye-opening Trees on Mars exposes our mania for the future as exactly what it is: an ideology as narrow and dangerous as any we’ve known from history. Read this book and be the first on your block to recall the rebel thrill of living in the present.” —J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be.

“A dark book about the future — and a thought-provoking one. Trees on Mars will leave you questioning our ideas about progress.” —Clive Thompson, Wired columnist and author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better.

About Trees on Mars

Trees On Mars: Our Obsession with the Future

320 Pages

Release Date: October 2015

The future is big right now – for perhaps the first time, our society is more focused on what is going to happen in the future than what is happening right now. Through visits to colleges, corporations, tech conferences, factories and more, author Hal Niedzviecki traces the story of how owning the future has become irresistible to us. In deep conversation with both the beneficiaries and victims of our relentless obsession with the future, Niedzviecki asks crucial questions: Where are we actually heading? How will we get there? And whom may we be leaving behind? READ MORE

The Official Trees On Mars Trailer!

Upcoming Events

Come hear Trees on Mars author Hal Niedzviecki speak about the book and the rise of future obsession. Events upcoming in cities across North America. Click here for details.

To find out more about hosting Niedzviecki at your upcoming event, click here.

Reviews and Interviews

Table of Contents and Excerpts

PART I: Our Lives in the Age of Tomorrow
Chapter 1: Chasing Tomorrow: Dispatches from our Obsession with the Future READ AN EXCERPT
Chapter 2: Teaching Future READ AN EXCERPT
Why Schools are Teaching Change and Preaching Tech
Chapter 3: The Group Just Slows Us Down READ AN EXCERPT
Future vs. Institution
Chapter 4: Data Harvest
Owning the Future and Everyone In ItPART II: Our Minds in the Future
Chapter 5: After READ AN EXCERPT on ALTERNET.ORG
Why Our Minds are Vulnerable to the Pull of Future
Chapter 6: Put a Spell on Me READ AN EXCERPT
When the Magic Became the InformationPART III: The Case Against the Future
Chapter 7: Consumption, Innovation, and the Truth of Change
Chapter 8: The Human Robot
Homo Economicus in Decline
Chapter 9: Future Shock and Awe READ EXCERPT; READ EXCERPT in Toronto Star
Anxiety FactoryPART IV: The End
Chapter 10: Escape from the Permanent Future READ AN EXCERPT
The Problem of Hope